Partner Content

Best Buy, Microsoft Partner on Vista Catalog

Best Buy and Microsoft teamed up in February to launch a catalog featuring the latter’s new Windows Vista operating system. The 40-page catalog mailed on Feb. 2 to 2.5 million-3 million Best Buy customers as part of the consumer electronics retailer’s “Love Your PC” campaign.

Minneapolis-based Best Buy chose to mail only to customers so that it could measure incremental sales against those not getting the catalog. Sales exceeded expectations by more than 10%, says a source who requested anonymity. The catalog drove increased traffic into the store “as measured by the increased Vista-equipped computer sales vs. the control group’s purchasing pattern,” according to the source. “And a lot more [recipients] are going to the Web than they expected.” More than half of the recipients visited the site within weeks of receiving the catalog.

The partnership between the companies started when Microsoft approached Best Buy looking for a way to move more computers as well as to tout Vista’s enhanced entertainment, digital photo, gaming, and business features. Best Buy and Windows are said to be crunching the numbers and exploring the opportunity for another catalog.